Elegy and the The Romantic Mood
interpreting two artists' works in the light of the Romantic era
Elegeia - the term refers to an ancient Greek tradition of memorial poetry, implying that the work in question commemorates loss. But the loss to which the exhibition 'Elegeia: Works by Brenda Stumpf and Tom Kelly' at the Eva G. Farris Art Gallery refers is not specific; it seems to reflect the mood of an epoch looking back upon some previous mode of human existence. For the artists refer to antiquity both in the formal and narrative aspects of their art: Stumpf through impermanence and architectural/historical/mystical references, and Kelly through his interpretation of Sappho's verse.
We may gain insight through the writings of the philosopher Hegel, although admittedly his prose often daunts readers. What he referred to as the 'Romantic' era (based on, though different from, the actual Romantic movement, though I will use the term loosely), as part of his metanarrative of the unfolding of World Spirit, represented a shift from the preceding one (the 'Classical') and was characterized in part by its wistful reflections upon the previous era. For Classical art embodied, according to Hegel, the unity of Spirit and Matter, the outer body rendered as an image of higher perfection (Greek sculpture). The Romantic phase, intuiting the infinite quality of Spirit, felt that finite matter—the external world—was inadequate for the represention of the Eternal. Nevertheless the Romantic, faced with the incommensurability between the outer world and the inner, looked longingly at the simple beauty and unity of Classical art; it represented an irretrievable consciousness and incomparable beauty. For example, the Romantics, as per their namesake, 'romanticized' the classical era by frequently painting ancient ruins. It is in this sense that the exhibition is elegiac: These two artists, both in the narrative and formal qualities of their artwork, create in the Romantic mood.
There are two key elements noted above about the Romantic mood: one, nostalgia and reverence for an ancient past, and two, negation of finite Matter for infinite Spirit. The question remains as to how these two artists' works reflect these two aspects; an analysis of how these two artists' works reflect these two aspects follows.
Stumpf's sculptures —the three in the show from her Offerings and Attributes series— bear this love of antiquity and etherification. Outwardly, they are each highly balanced, centripetal formations, like ziggurats or Egyptian pyramids (though as pyramids, more similar to those of the various ancient peoples of Central and South America): wide at the base, triangulated with large steps for each layer. This is especially apparent in Flos Sacer, 2005. Though it is the one that least resembles a pyramid, its overall directional tendency is triangular. The apex of each represents the culmination of this metamorphosis in floral, brush-like crests. The sculpture emulates the growth of a flowering plant but with the peculiar solidity of antique monumental constructions.
The lower levels are wrapped in materials such as gauze that give them the effect of being embalmed. Egyptian embalming preserved the form (corpse or body) for the next phase of its existence as part of the transmigration of the soul, here represented in the floral summit. Matter, once dead and inanimate, becomes, through a process of internment the metamorphosized, refined element. Each layer of the pyramidical structure represents a metamorphosis of the previous one into a more refined state.
Stumpf's works, as per the Romantic mode, reflect upon the transient nature of the external world as opposed to the eternal inner world while using the above motifs of antiquity: in her case, this becomes visible history within her materials (or, as mentioned above, process). Matter is impermanent and changing, as opposed to Spirit, permanent and unchanging. The sculptures have a sense of decay about them while resisting the same. Note how the dripping of pigment, the old parchment colors and the worn look of the tea-stained textures remind one of antiquated remains. Yet these are all subsumed into a harmonious composition, lending them a poignant, melancholic beauty.
In reverence for the fragmentary remnants of Sappho's lyrical verse (itself a symbol of fragmented memory and unrecoverable past), and the beauty of the content of her poems, Kelly creates softened, burnt umbra hues breaking sporadically through textured white paint. Some of the smallest works are carefully selected segments of larger pieces — fragments (like Sappho's surviving poems), yet wholesome in their composition. Emulating Cy Twombly, he works with that artist's language deftly. Like the Romantic, he seeks to negate matter as an unsuitable vessel for Spirit (and finds inspiration in a Greek poet); in his case, he achieves this with luminosity. For example, Amid wild blossoms of the spring, 2009 he began with strong reds and dark umber tones and then illumined them by layering the white paint successively. As a modernist process-style of painting, the previous strokes and layers are still visible (pentimenti), though somewhat veiled.
Stumpf and Kelly arguably have much more occurring in their work than mentioned here; these above thoughts are in the context of the theme of their exhibition, and are reflections on the mode of consciousness to which I believe they sentimentally ascribe. For both are conscious of their choices, attested by their own writings and thoughts about their work; hence we may conclude that in their temperament they freely root themselves in history, but as artists are fully contemporary.
